Human Rights House Belgrade

About

Supporting civil society, Human Rights House Belgrade has a focus on economic and social rights, discrimination, hate crime, minority issues, and access to justice.

The House supports human rights defenders, providing free legal aid in the first instance. It is also a leader in Serbia’s EU negotiation process, coordinating with the National Convention on the EU – the platform for discussion on Serbian accession – as a genuine civil society movement for reforms and further EU integration.

The House supports other civil society organisations in exercising freedom of assembly and association. The special focus for 2017 was awarding journalists for their responsible reporting and fight for freedom of expression.

The House will continue to fight against the trend of closing space for civil society, especially having in mind the rise of populistic and nationalistic trends in Serbia.

Organisations

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights is a non-partisan, non-political and non-profit association of citizens concerned with the advancement of theory and practice of human rights.

It assembles persons of various professions and backgrounds – jurists, attorneys, sociologists, economists, writers, teachers, students and entrepreneurs. They contribute to the mission of the Centre by their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm.

Civic Initiatives (CI) is an association of citizens for democracy and civil education.

The vision of CI is a society of equal and active citizens who make decisions about their lives in a democratic state, with full respect for human rights and the rule of law. The basic values of CI are equality and equal opportunities, sharing with others, dedication, tolerance, solidarity, caring for people, creating connections and partnerships with others, without imposing, as well as permanent education for everyone. People are the greatest value and resource of our organisation.

The mission of CI is the strengthening of civil society through education, promoting democracy and support for an active society. The strategy of CI is that just by removing regional, national, ethnic, religious, gender and social barriers it is possible to build a stronger, more efficient and potentially sustainable civil sector and in that way contribute to the development of society in general.

The Helsinki Committee examines the situation of human rights in Serbia against country’s overall socioeconomic and political context – an approach to the problematic different from those of other human rights organisations and best mirrored in its annual reports. Here the organisation not only dissects policies and trends affecting the exercise of human rights but also provide relevant recommendations.

As a grassroots and think tank organisation, the HCHRS has focused on mass infringement of human rights in Serbia and the region and advocates freedom of association, assembly and speech, tolerance and anti-discrimination. The mission of the HCHRS is to promote equality and observance of human rights of all minorities and sensitive groups and to advocate active and responsible citizenship.

The Lawyers’ Committee For Human Rights (YUCOM) was founded in 1997 as an expert, voluntary, non-governmental organisation whose members are legal experts engaged in promoting and advocating the idea of the rule of law and uphold of human rights, raising public awareness, conceiving, designing and leading civic initiatives, rendering legal assistance to victims of human rights violation, as well as developing co-operation with national and international organisations involved in human rights protection and promotion.

YUCOM is recognised as an organisation advocating human rights and promoting active participation of citizens in legal initiatives. It has profiled itself and gained much recognition as human rights defenders’ organisation.

Policy Center (PC) is a think tank organisation operating in the areas of regional cooperation, human rights protection and civil sector reform in the countries of the Western Balkans.

PC investigates, documents and analyses the practice of institutions in the areas in which it operates, on the basis of which it makes suggestions of practical policies and recommendations and advocates their adoption.

PC contributes to the improvement of the civil sector in the Western Balkan countries by providing support to human rights organisations.